Ubuntu Linux- Installing Firefox and Recognizing Second HDD

[icallmedan]

Like the time I began running Fedora Core a while ago, I find myself now using Ubuntu Linux. I chose it based on the fact that that word is an inside joke between a friend and I. But anyways, I find myself at the same point I was at with Fedora, before I dropped it for Windows XP . I can not figure out how, and where to install Firefox 1.0.4. Right now version 1.0.2 is loaded, but I would like to update it. I go to the site and download the .tar.gz thing, and then when it is done, I have the option to unpack it. Where do I unpack it to? How do I install it to the correct folder afterward. I am very new to the Linux Filesystems.

My second question is about a second hard drive. Ubuntu recognizes this second hard drive, but it is not formatted at all. Before I installed Linux I used Kill Disk to wipe both hard drives in my computer, and now I would like to know if I can format the second hard drive to make it usable in Linux. This Linux box recognizes the HDD in Device Manager, but it does not show up in "Computer."

Thanks in advance for the help.

[ffreeloader]

I haven't run Ubuntu, but as it is a descendant of Debian, which I do know, you most likely upgrade software with apt-get or aptitude. apt-get runs from the bash shell and aptitude is a gui app. I'll tell you how to use apt-get as I never use aptitude and couldn't even begin to tell you how to upgrade packages with it. I've never even tried it in the year and half I've been running Debian. apt-get works so well I've never even considered using it.

Open up a bash shell, su to root, and run "apt-get update" (without the quotes). Then run "apt-get upgrade". That should upgrade any and all packages that are both installed on your system and in need of upgrading, which your version of FF is in need of. If you have a dial-up connection do this when you have some time to spare as it may take a while as it sounds like you probably have quite a few packages that are out of date by how old your FF package is.

There are some Ubuntu-specific forums around too. Do a Google search for them. I just did a Google search for "Ubuntu apt-get help" and got several returns so there's a lot of help out there on Ubuntu forums. There's probably a few mailing lists too. Mailing lists are very good sources for help. I have used the Debian mailing lists a lot, and read there regularly. I learn a lot there.

[Xayd]

as for firefox, the fixes in 1.0.4 are backported into the version included in the unbuntu distro, so unless you NEED 1.0.4 for some other reason, upgrading isn't necessary. everything is there except the version number, including the security fixes.

as for the hard drive..

linux will see your drives as such, assuming you have ide drives...

/dev/hda = primary master
/dev/hdb = primary slave
/dev/hdc = secondary master
/dev/hdd = secondary slave

what file system are you using for the rest? if unsure,

cat /etc/fstab

you will see something like...

/dev/hda5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/hda3 / ext3 defaults 1 1
/dev/hda1 /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,owner,ro 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto noauto,owner 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0


/ is the root filesystem, on my slackware box you can see the filesystem type is ext3

so first of all, fire up fdisk on the drive you want to partition and format. it won't stop you from picking the wrong one, mind you, so be absolutely sure you type in the right one.

fdisk /dev/hd(?)

where hd(whatever) is the correct one from the example above depending on which channel and slave or master the drive in question is.

fdisk is fairly self explanatory just delete any existing partitions and make a new one with all the available space, assuming that's what you want to do.

after you write out the new partition, you need to format it, so...

mkfs.ext3 -m 0 -j /dev/hd(?)

again where hd(whatever) is the proper drive. -m 0 tells it to not bother with reserving space for root -j tells it to create a journal for the drive, which is the benefit of ext3 to begin with .

so now you got a drive with a partition that's formatted, all that's left to do is mount it somewhere and tell the OS to mount it when you boot.

first a mount spot, most every distro has a folder reserved for this already, /mnt

so you simply make a directory under mount for it...

mkdir /mnt/backupdrive (or whatever you wanna call it, can be anything you wish)

then you can mount it with the mount command..

mount /dev/hd(?) /mnt/backupdrive

at this point the drive is there and you should be able to use it just fine. to add it to the drives mounted automatically when you boot, you need to edit the file that controls drives, /etc/fstab. simply fire it up in any editor, and at the end of the file add your drive, as in the example above...

/dev/hd(?) /mnt/backupdrive ext3 defaults 0 3

the first line is the device, the second line is where you want it mounted, the third line is the file system type, the fourth line you can control read/write and user access and other such things, but since you probably don't want to restrict the drive in any way just put "defaults" like your other drives. the last two numbers are used by the backup utility dump, and the last number is used by fsck to determine which order drives should be processed in when fsck checks disk integrity. a value of zero means "off", so unless you use dump you can leave the first number as 0, the last number you wanna set to the next value that's not in use, it can't be the same as another drive. if you have 1 and 2 used for /boot and /, set it to 3, just make sure it's the next number in line.

and that's it you can save fstab and you're done. no need to reboot since the drive is mounted already.

when updating things in general, each distro has their own nuances about where things are and how things are installed. there is no default location for things in linux, it'll put things wherever you tell it to (or a default that you might not want if you don't tell it where). therefore, until you know what you're up to, it would be wise to stick with apt for installing things. after all, that's what it's there for- to make installing things easier.

if you want to install a program from source that's fine, but to do so you have to check and make sure you have all of the program in question's dependancies, make sure you configure it with the options you need, etc. that's not difficult to do if you read the manual, so to speak, but for programs that you already have installed, you want to either remove what's there before installing a new version from source, or stick with the versions supplied with your OS. it's not difficult to end up with 3 or 4 different versions (conflicting with each other possibly) of the same thing floating around on the same system if you don't pay attention to what you're doing.

again, it won't stop you from doing something you shouldn't do.

so as a general rule of thumb, stick with apt if possible, install from source if you don't have it and apt won't give it to you, and when doing so always read README and INSTALL first. any dependancies should be noted in those files, and configure options will be noted as well which you might want or need.

btw any and all how-tos are easily found by google, search for "add new hard drive ubuntu" or some such and you'll probably turn up all of this info from 3309834089 billion other places .

ubuntu is based on debian so if you can't find a ubuntu-specific guide for doing something, search for a debian guide and it'll be the exact same thing.

[icallmedan]

Thank you both so much for the help.